About the Project
Name of the project: Synergy
Technologies used: O365, Powell 365, Powell Teams
Project status:
- In progress / permanent development
- 4th year of using Powell 365
- Powell Teams deployment phase
Number of users / Licenses: ~ 4,000 (1,500 employees / 2,500 volunteers)
Why did you choose to equip the AFM-Telethon with Powell Teams?
We have been working with Powell Software for 5 years. In 2015, we needed to harmonize and standardize our tools as well as update some of our platforms that were no longer supported and aging. We needed a tool to communicate, share and collaborate. Office 365 was obvious because the majority of our infrastructure use Microsoft solutions including Intranets on SharePoint. The functional building blocks of Office 365 (SharePoint, OneDrive, Yammer, Skype for Business / Teams) meet our needs. The addition of the Powell 365 solution was of great added value. This allowed us to orchestrate most Office 365 tools by grouping them on an Intranet, thus facilitating adoption and usage
In the current context of health crisis, we needed to rapidly deploy teleworking tools for our employees. We had already deployed Skype for Business for all of our users. With the crisis, like many companies, we had a very strong increase in the use of Skype for Business. In time, Microsoft Teams naturally started to replace Skype for Business and became more prevalent. This allowed us to extend the usage of Teams meetings, project collaboration as well as one on one or group-based communication. Above all, it allowed us to keep in touch despite the distance with employees, researchers and families of patients (guests). Paradoxically, we feel closer thanks to remote communication tools. We regularly organize small training sessions with Teams (for screen sharing, presentation, and audio) and Yammer (for announcements).
Microsoft Teams allowed us to continue to accelerate our digital transformation and strengthen user adoption.
When Powell Software announced the launch of Powell Teams, we wanted to test it as soon as possible to help us better manage our own Teams environment.
What benefits does the Powell Teams app bring to the AFM-Telethon?
As an administrator, Powell Teams enables us to define standards that apply across the whole organization in order to ensure consistency. We want to take advantage of Microsoft Team’s governance functionalities which allow us to control the growth and sprawl of teams, their structure, and their life cycle. We also appreciate the analysis tables which allow us to monitor usage among other analytics.
The application will also allow us to improve the user experience for our employees and volunteers. Not everyone has the same level of digital dexterity, so we appreciate that Powell Teams simplifies the Microsoft Teams’ experience. Powell Teams allows the users to quickly create teams via pre-structured templates, to easily access their teams (via tags, favorites, and highlights) and to benefit from more intuitive navigation.
History & stages of the project
- RFP issued in 2015 for an interactive, collaborative and scalable intranet solution
- Choice of Office 365 and Powell 365 in 2016
- Use of Teams for projects rather than a custom SharePoint site in 2019
- Deployment of Powell Teams
- Transition to Microsoft SharePoint Modern experience / Orion understudy for 2020/2021
For more information on Powell Teams, check out our webinar.